English

EN105H
Topics Chosen by Instructor
The English Department

EN 228H

Victorian Illustrated Book

Prof. Catherine Golden

What was the last book you read with illustrations? Was it a graphic novel, a comic book, or a children‘s book? All of these types of books have their roots in the Victorian illustrated book, a genre for adults as well as young readers. Illustrations were part of the adult reading experience of the Victorian age. Images did not simply embellish the Victorian illustrated book as we often conceive of illustration today; rather, pictures added meaning, which, in turn, influenced how an audience "read" fiction and poetry. This Honors, writing-intensive course explores the form of the Victorian illustrated book with attention to illustration, critical analysis, and creative practice. The class will focus on illustrated novels, picture-poems, and critical studies in aesthetics and literature to discern how a poem is like and different from a picture (the "ut pictura poesis" tradition) or comment upon the collaboration of image and word as an art form. Special attention will be given to the poem and painting pairs of D.G. Rossetti; the illustrated fiction of Dickens, Carroll, and Potter; the aesthetic ideas of Horace, Plato, and Lessing; analytic writing; and primary research. Students will learn to read illustrations like their Victorian audiences once did. We will work in the rare book room and put on a library exhibition on an aspect of Victorian literature and culture. In addition to writing frequent papers, students will become author-illustrators to create their own illustrated texts.

EN 229H
Stories of English
Prof. Kate Greenspan

MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON

 
EN229E H
Intro to Medieval Literature
Prof. Kate Greenspan

This course will introduce you to the rich body of medieval lyric poetry,  from the late classical period through the Middle Ages (c. 400-c.1500). We will read songs of love and war, meditations, satires, charms and prayers composed by wandering students, noble troubadors, revolutionary stilnovisti, devout friars and riddling bards. We will learn about the traditions within which they wrote and the innovations they wrought. Further, we will consider issues of translation, performance, and literacy in the context of the sometimes competing, sometimes complementary cultures of secular society and the medieval Church. We will read most of the poems in translation, except for those in Middle English, which we will learn to read in the original. We will also read some modern essays that will teach us more about medieval culture and its poetry. Assignments will include three papers, a journal, group presentations and active participation in class, including reading aloud. Fulfills the early period requirement for students in the new major.